Camp Howard

I guess we are making it a tradition now and taking an annual camping trip. Our camping buddies (the Baccus fam) moved away (insert sobbing), but I am so glad we 

have lots of friends that love to camp too. 

The sweet Raudenbush fam didn't hesitate one bit when we started planning our trip.  Well, maybe we did have to convince Ashley, but everyone else was quickly on board. Fulton and I headed out to the camp site early Friday afternoon to stake out a good piece of land. The others quickly joined us and we started setting up our site. 

It's some work putting everything out (like I would know, Matt did everything), but here we are breaking in our little home for the night. 

 

Matt loves a good fire so he was quickly gathering wood and getting it started. We cooked hotdogs, the hard way--over the fire... except I opted for mine on the grill. Something about shards of wood in my dog that doesn't appeal to me. 

We made smores for dessert. Fulton was a fan and Brynna loved the flashlights. Sweet friends!

And here we are Saturday morning. Let's do a recap of the nighttime hours. Remember those smores Fulton was eating. Disaster!! The sugar went straight to his brain and made him crazy. He flipped flopped around like a fish for nearly 2 hours. I threatened to take him home in the middle of the night thinking that would make him settle down, but he replied with "I want to go home." Well, that didn't work. He finally settled down somewhere around the 11:00 hour and we got a little rest. This guy was rip roaring ready to go at 5:30 a.m. Matt got up with him and they walked the woods...trying to whisper while doing it. 

Ashley made some delicious breakfast burritos and we warmed them over the fire. We took our campsite down later that morning and walked over to Trade Days. That was entertaining. 

By noon we were all worn out, dirty, and ready to head home. I am a one night camper, unless I had a motorhome... now that would be some nice camping. We had a great trip. It is fun to expose Fulton to these things and enjoy it as a family. Good times!

Birthday Boy

Happy 3rd Birthday to our precious Fulton!!!

As I type this it is almost the exact time that our sweet boy was born. What a joy the last three years have been. He is such a caring, funny, shy, and thoughtful young man. It's really a blessing to see his little personality begin to develop. He has a love for all things superhero, trucks, cars, and especially construction equipment. His favorite foods are anything fruit related, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and this boy loves some string cheese. He is beginning to learn scripture and has two verses memorized already. 

Daddy took off today so we could spend the day as a family. After we blew out our birthday candles on our pancakes, we headed to the doctor for our three year well visit with Dr. Cortopassi. This guy got to have his blood pressure taken for the first time. He sat there like a champ!

He weighs 33 lbs and is 3ft 1 inch. He is right on target for everything and he even braved the flu mist and didn't even flinch. I am just so amazed how fast the last three years of his life have flown by. When he was just a baby Matt and I would say--I wonder what he will look like, be like, talk like, etc when he is a toddler. Well, those days are here. Our only hope and prayer is that he will run fast towards his Lord and Savior and have a heart that is on fire for Him. 

After our quick doctor's visit we headed to the McWane Center. Fulton hadn't been here in about a year, so it was fun to see how much more he could participate in. 

He really enjoyed the sea life on the bottom floor. We practically had the place to ourselves and got to pet the sting rays and little sharks. 

These two did a little fossil digging while we were there. 

They really have some of the coolest exhibits and this one you could walk into this slanted room and depending on which way you went you were either huge or tiny. He thought it was hilarious. After McWane we headed to Saw's Juke Joint for lunch. Wow that was delicious. I had the fried green tomato BLT with okra. We came home with full bellies and took great naps. 

For dinner we met up with the family at Frontera. It was Fulton's choice. 

He loves some Mexican food. 

Kiki brought cookies from Savage's and Fulton didn't hesitate to eat the 

entire thing while we sat there. 

So thankful our family could all be together to celebrate the third year of life for this cutie!

We had such a wonderful day celebrating. But the fun wasn't over yet. 

Fulton wanted to pick out a little birthday fish. We are officially a pet family again. Baby steps. He loves this little fish already and on the way home he named it Floyd. We sat Floyd up in the middle of the kitchen table and even read him a book before bed. So, Happy 3rd Birthday to our little blessing Fulton. Thank you Lord for allowing us the privilege of being his parents. 

We love you Fulton!

Fulton's Pancake Party

Saturday was party day for this little guy! It all started with a book called "If You Give a Pig a Pancake." I love to base his birthday parties off of books and I knew this would be a fun theme. 

This little cutie woke up Saturday morning thrilled about all his friends coming over for his party. He helped with the finishing touches and eagerly watched the guys set up the bounce house. He jumped in as soon as they left and couldn't wait to try it out before the party started. 

For his party favors we handed out bowls with cereal boxes. The kids loved these!!

Aunt Keri has a tradition now. She loves making the number for the door and did not disappoint with the number 3 this year. 

Our food table filled with some awesome breakfast yummies. The main course was a pancake bar complete with strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, and whipped cream. We also had muffins, doughnut holes, hashbrown casserole, cheese grits, grapes, apples and dip, and sausage balls. Wash it all down with a big glass of Orange Juice or Lemonade and your belly is content. 

Are you ready for this amazing cake?! It's a cake made to look like a stack of pancakes with the syrup bottled suspended in the air. Amazing!! It was created by our precious Mrs. Vin. Not only was it super cool, it was delicious too. 

Fulton was thrilled to have Kiki and Pete there to help us celebrate. Thanks to them both 

for all their help. 

Yay!! KK and Pop were there to help celebrate too. Thanks to their huge help too. As always could not have done it without the help of my sweet family. 

Our little family of three celebrating the life of this little blessing God has given us. 

What a great day to celebrate!

Fulton loves Mrs. Vin! He kept asking if she was coming to his party!

You know how I am with pictures and I tried to get a family shot of everyone as they came in. I think I missed like two families though. 

A few more of the sweet people who came to help us celebrate. 

Have I mentioned we have the best friends ever!! Love all these families that took the time out of their day to come and fellowship with us. 

A few of the sweet girls in our class. 

It's cake time. I really hated to cut that amazing cake, but we were eager to dig in. 

Somebody loved it!! He had a little dessert date with his buddy Laylee. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of Fulton sitting still with his friends, but there wasn't much sitting still involved. 

Fulton said the best part of the day was the bounce house. He had a ball!!

Fulton had a great time with Kiki in there with him. 

The weather was great. We woke up to a cloudy day, but it was very cool and not a bit hot. 

You know how much I love to host and have people over to our house. This just warms my heart to open our home and see all these families getting to fellowship together. 

After the party this little guy convinced Pop to get in the bounce house with him. 

They had so much fun!

You know we are sticking with our tradition and ask people not to bring gifts but our family never follows the rules, so this little guy had a few things to open after his friends had gone. 

He loves his Ninja Turtles walkie talkies from KK and Pop and thinks he is super cool in the Spiderman costume Kiki and Pete gave him. 

One of the greatest parts is the huge box of donations we received and will be able to donate to the Bell Center for Early Intervention. We are really trying to get Fulton to see that it's not all about us, it's about doing things for others. We had the bounce house until 7:00 pm so the sweet Raudenbush family came back down with some pizzas and we continued the after party up until the guys arrived to take it down. The kids were a sweaty mess, but I would say we got our money's worth.

What a fabulous day of celebrating this little guys life!! This is his last night as a two year old. My sweet baby boy will be three tomorrow!

Labor Day and Beyond

Labor Day weekend was a little different this year. Mom, Fulton and I went up Friday morning to do a few things around there. Dad and Matt came up later after work. Saturday morning we went up to see Mema and realized she had a little injury that really needed attention, So Mom and I loaded up to take her. 5 hours later we returned. The guys spent the afternoon watching football and then a few storms rolled in. Sister and Pete arrived later that night. 

We made a fort inside and pretended to nap in it. 

 Sunday we were determined to spend some time on the water. Would you believe this is the only picture I took all day. Boo. The guys were working on something on the boat. We took a really long boat ride, came back and played in the water. We made a good lunch and then started cleaning up things to store away for the winter. We decided to head on home Sunday night because we were planning to spend some time with Grandma Monday. 

Labor Day morning we got up to a nice cool morning and took a great walk in the neighborhood and finished with breakfast on the back porch. We went to mom and dads and had a nice lunch, but Grandma didn't make it. She wasn't feeling up to it. 

We finally got to go visit the sweet Ness family and meet baby James. 

These three had a blast together. 

Tuesday afternoon Fulton and I loaded up and headed to Matt's school's first home football game. We enjoyed a little picnic dinner and loved seeing daddy. 

These two headed to the Alabama game this morning. I was sad to not be going with them but after school Thursday I started feeling awful and ended up at the doctor where I was diagnosed with the flu. The flu!? In September?? Yes, that's what I said. I have been down for the count since then, but thankful Matt stayed home with Fulton yesterday because I could barely make it out of the bed. He is amazing!! Here's to hoping I am turning the corner and getting back to my old self.